North Macedonia name change enters force | News | DW | 12.02.2019

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North Macedonia name change enters force

The process of changing the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia's name has come to an end. Athens and Skopje first agreed on the name change in a landmark deal in June 2018.

North Macedonian flag (picture-alliance/dpa/D. Perkovksi)

The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has formally renamed itself the Republic of North Macedonia, the government in Skopje said on Tuesday.

The amendment that changed the country's name became law with its publication in the official gazette, a month after the parliament approved the move.

North Macedonia also formally notified the United Nations about the name change, the government said.

The move ends a long-running dispute between North Macedonia and its southern neighbor, Greece, and has opened a path for Skopje to join the NATO military alliance and the European Union.

Read more: Macedonia: What's in a name?

Watch video 05:17

Greece ratifies North Macedonia's name change

Athens had blocked its northern neighbor from joining either bloc because it claimed "Macedonia" and the name's historical associations for one of its northern provinces.

Greece only allowed Skopje to join the UN in 1995 as the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," a reference to the country's former membership of Yugoslavia.

Both countries' leftist governments eventually agreed on the compromise "North Macedonia" in June 2018 and won parliamentary approval in Skopje and Athens for the deal in January.

Greece has ratified an accession protocol that North Macedonia signed with all 29 members of NATO last week. North Macedonia will formally join the alliance once all members ratify the accord.

  • Modern Macedonia ENG

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    Present day

    As well as Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the geographic region of Macedonia extends into Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia as well as small areas of Kosovo (which you can't quite see here).

  • Karte Mazedonien im Altertum ENG

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    Greek origins

    The ancient kingdom of Macedonia – or Macedon – was a relatively small part of the present day Greek province of Macedonia. It first expanded under King Perdiccas I, then widened to take in other areas.

  • Map of Macedonia as a Roman province ENG

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    A Roman province

    After the fall of the Greek Empire, the Romans – who admired Alexander – used the old name Macedonia for the province encompassing much of northern Greece and the area north of it – including much of the modern-day Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

  • Map of Macedonia in Byzantine times ENG

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    A shift to the east

    With the breakup of the Roman Empire into East and West, this region was overrun by the Slavic invasions. An entirely new province far to the east, including part of Thrace in modern-day Turkey, was named Macedonia by the Byzantine Empress Irene of Athens.

  • Map of Macedonia in Ottoman times ENG

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    Ottoman roots for current concept

    The geographic region known as Macedonia today roughly equates to the part of the Ottoman Empire known as Ottoman Vardar Macedonia. It included Greek and Slavic areas and was split into three administrative units, but the concept of Macedonia persisted. This remained the case for centuries and so this concept – of what Macedonia is – has stuck.

  • Macedonia's borders over time ENG

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    Let's put that all together...

    ...and there's certainly a fair bit of overlap — and room for confusion.

  • Alexander the Great's realm (picture alliance/Glasshouse Images/JT Vintage)

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    Small matter of empire

    Of course, Macedonia's King Alexander the Great's realm stretched all the way to India — but it would be a bit of a stretch to call that Macedonia

  • Fruit salad (picture-alliance/Bildagentur-online/AGF-Foto)

    Shape-shifting Macedonia

    A heady mix of flavors

    As if it weren’t complicated enough, there’s another meaning of the word Macedonia. In Greece and many Latin-language-speaking countries, it’s also a fruit salad. The name is thought to have ben popularized at the end of the 18th century, referring to either the ethnic diversity of Alexander's vast empire or the ethnic mix of Ottoman Macedonia.

    Author: Richard Connor


amp/rc (AP, dpa)

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